Oscar Piastri came out on top at the end of a frenetic Sprint Shootout session at the Qatar Grand Prix, getting the better of McLaren team mate Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for a landmark pole position.

Piastri, who had not topped a qualifying session in F1 before, produced a stunning time of 1m 24.454s as the Shootout drew to a close to finish just under a tenth clear of Norris, whose final lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits.

Max Verstappen, having lost his initial time over track limits, managed to get an effort on the board at the chequered flag, but it was not enough to deny Piastri and Norris, who will form the first all-McLaren front row of any kind since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.

After a surprise SQ2 exit for Lewis Hamilton, another to be stripped of lap times in a session dominated by track limits, it was George Russell who led Mercedes’ charge in fourth, followed by the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc had laps of his own deleted across the SQ3 phase, but managed to recover and beat the eye-catching Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, who claimed seventh, with Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) all falling foul of track limits in P8 to P10.

While Ocon progressed to SQ3, team mate Pierre Gasly just missed out in 11th, with Hamilton only 12th after his track limits violations during the middle phase. Alfa Romeo pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were split by the AlphaTauri of Liam Lawson (the latter two caught out by track limits) at the foot of the SQ2 order.

Lance Stroll followed up his Q1 exit on Friday with an SQ1 elimination, having run wide at Turn 5 as the first phase drew to a close, leaving the Aston Martin man 16th on the grid from Williams driver Alex Albon, who lost his best lap time for exceeding track limits.